Like many good ideas in golf, Round Buddy started with a simple frustration.
A group of us were playing the way most casual golfers do. Once a month if we were lucky, sometimes stretching out to six weeks between rounds. We enjoyed the game, the time outdoors, and the chance to catch up. But when it came to keeping score and tracking how we were going, things never quite worked the way we hoped.
We tried a number of golf apps along the way.
Some were impressive. Feature-rich, packed with data, offering everything from distance-to-pin measurements to detailed performance analytics. But they came at a cost. Both financially and in terms of complexity.
For golfers playing once a month, it was hard to justify.
We didn’t need every feature. We just wanted something simple. Something that worked during a round, helped us keep track of our scores, and gave us a sense of whether we were actually improving.
So, we decided to build it ourselves.
Starting With the Basics
At its core, Round Buddy is a digital scorecard.
It’s designed to make it easy to enter your score as you play, without interrupting the flow of the round. No complicated setup. No unnecessary steps. Just a simple way to keep track of what’s happening on each hole.
But as we started using it, we realised that scoring was only part of the story.
Golf, even at a casual level, is a social game.
Keeping the Group Connected
One of the challenges we often faced was organising a round. Messages going back and forth, trying to find a date that worked, keeping track of who was in and who wasn’t.
That led to the idea of Buddy Groups.
A simple way to create a regular group of players, send out an invite, and lock in a game without the usual back-and-forth. With a few taps, a round could be scheduled and shared via email and calendar. Keeping everyone on the same page.
It’s a small addition, but one that reflects how most casual golfers actually play: in groups, with familiar faces, trying to make it work around busy schedules.
Building a Better Picture Over Time
Then came the question of improvement.
If you only play occasionally, it’s easy to lose track of how you’re going. A scorecard might tell you how you played on the day, but it rarely sticks around long enough to tell a bigger story.
So we started capturing a little more detail.
Not just scores, but things like:
- Number of putts
- Tee results
- Stableford points
Over time, those small data points begin to form a clearer picture. Patterns emerge. Progress becomes visible.
Instead of relying on memory, you can actually see how your game is trending—whether that’s your scores coming down, your putting improving, or your consistency off the tee starting to take shape.
Making Sense of the Numbers
Of course, collecting data is one thing. Understanding it is another.
That’s where the idea for insights came in.
By looking at how a player performs over time—scores, putts, tee shots—it’s possible to highlight areas that might need attention, or confirm what’s already working well.
The goal isn’t to overwhelm. It’s simply to offer a bit of guidance. A nudge in the right direction based on what’s actually happening in your game.
Simplifying the Way We Play
Another area we kept coming back to was scoring formats.
Stableford, in particular, stood out. It’s widely regarded as one of the fairest and most enjoyable ways to play, especially for casual golfers. It rewards good holes, softens the impact of bad ones, and keeps everyone engaged.
And yet, most of us weren’t using it.
The reason was familiar: the calculations.
Working out points based on handicaps and stroke indexes during a round can feel like more effort than it’s worth. So, like many others, we defaulted to stroke play.
Round Buddy was built to change that.
By handling the calculations in the background, Stableford becomes easy to use—something you can actually enjoy without needing to think about the mechanics behind it.
Designed for Real-World Golf
As the app evolved, we made a conscious decision about what not to include.
Features like GPS tracking and distance-to-pin are incredibly useful—but they’re also well covered by other apps, often at a higher price point and with a level of detail that suits more frequent or competitive players.
That wasn’t our focus.
Round Buddy is designed for the kind of golf most people play:
- Occasional rounds
- Social groups
- Public courses
- A mix of abilities
It’s about keeping things simple, affordable, and relevant.
Built Around Flexibility
One final challenge stood out early on: golf courses.
With so many courses around the world, maintaining a complete database simply wasn’t practical. So instead, we took a different approach.
Players can add their own course by scanning a scorecard with their phone—making it possible to set up a round almost anywhere, without relying on preloaded data.
Where It All Leads
Round Buddy isn’t trying to be everything.
It’s not built for professionals, or for those chasing every possible data point.
It’s built for golfers who enjoy the game, play when they can, and want a simple way to keep track of their rounds and their progress over time.
Something that fits naturally into the way they already play.
We’re continuing to refine and improve the app as we go, and feedback from fellow golfers plays a big part in that.
After all, Round Buddy started as a solution to our own frustrations.
Chances are, if you’ve experienced something similar, it might just work for you too.
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